Reading, listening to, and questioning America... from the southern Great Plains

"Cliff" update. (Not good.)

Face it. About half of Congress doesn't give a flying.

Even with so much at stake, there appeared to be little sense of
urgency. Senate aides say most senators are not likely to be back on
Capitol Hill before Thursday evening. And while the House may
technically be in session, Republican leaders told members last week
they would be given a 48-hour notice before they should return, and that
notice has not yet been given. ...NYT

It was Boehner's debacle that pretty much ended the pre-Christmas efforts. "Congressional aides involved in the negotiations say the prospects for a
deal dimmed considerably after the debacle in the House last Thursday,
when Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio could not muster the votes for legislation to extend expiring Bush-era tax cuts for income below $1 million a year." And with that, Boehner passed the whole thing off to the Senate.